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Photo of Military Moms Breast-Feeding Causes Sensation: Why the 'Outrage' Is the Real Shocker

Beyonce did it in a restaurant! That hot mom did it on the cover of TIME, standing up! And now -- shocker -- military moms are doing it, in uniform! The big question, though, is why are people so worked up...

Beyonce did it in a restaurant! That hot mom did it on the cover of TIME, standing up! And now -- shocker -- military moms are doing it, in uniform! The big question, though, is why are people so worked up about breast-feeding?

The women pictured here, Terran Echegoyen-McCabe (left) and Christina Luna (right), are both in active service. Oh, and in case you didn't notice, they're breast-feeding their babies (twin 10-month-old girls for Echegoyen-McCabe; a toddler for Luna), while on their lunch break at an Air Force base.

This photo is just one is a series by photographer Brynja Sigurdardottir, all featuring military moms breast-feeding. Crystal Scott, a military spouse, mother of three and the founder of Mom2Mom of Fairchild Air Force Base, a breast-feeding support group, commissioned the photo shoot as a way to raise awareness in her community for National Breastfeeding Awareness month coming up in August.

Did Scott expect the photos to make national headlines? "Never in a million years," she tells HealthySELF.

"We were in shock," Scott says about the reaction to the photo shoot. "We do a lot of local activities to raise awareness and this was just another activity, meant for our small community. The photographer posted a preview of the session on her blog and Facebook page, and overnight it just kind of took off -- we were not expecting it at all!"

The rest of the photos in the series all depict breast-feeding, but the other moms are in civilian clothes. "The uniform has definitely caught the most attention," says Scott, "because people think that a woman can't be a mom and be a soldier."

Some people certainly do seem to be upset about seeing a soldier in uniform breast-feeding -- negative comments on Sigurdardottir's Facebook page range from the mildly disapproving: "I have no problem with the breastfeeding. As far as I'm concerned, they can breastfeed naked in the middle of Central Park. This is not the proper way to wear a military uniform" -- to the shocked and dismayed: "Ladies, make up your mind, you either want equal rights or you don't. This sets equality for women in the military 10 steps back."

In Scott's opinion, people who are reacting negatively to the photo shoot are doing so because of a general lack of education regarding breast-feeding. "In the United States, breast-feeding is not natural or normal, and so people don't know how to react to it," she says.

Jill Wodnick, M.A., breast-feeding educator and Community Doula Coordinator for the Hudson Perinatal Consortium in N.J., concurs. "The dominant culture doesn't know how to deal with breast-feeding as a health topic, and still wants to hyper-sexualize and objectify women," she says.

Wodnick is thrilled to see these photos getting national attention. "It's an opportunity to normalize human milk for human babies," she says. "Over the last few decades, rates of breast-feeding have improved, but in recent years, rates have climbed more slowly." In fact, she says, "What's really shocking is that there are so many barriers to breast-feeding!"

The American Association of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breast-feeding (if possible) for about the first six months of a baby's life, followed by in combination with food until at least 12 months. And the World Health Organization recommends breast-feeding for two years "and beyond."

According to Wodnick, people who are outraged have never been taught the public health perspective about breast-feeding. "With dialogue, science and legislative protection, breast-feeding need not outrage nor offend but be part of a national priority for healthy families and healthy communities," she says.

And, in fact, there are plenty of people who are coming out in support of the military mom photographs. "We've gotten more positive than negative comments," says Scott. "People thanking us for what we're doing, telling us how we're inspiring people to start their own breast-feeding support groups, how it's encouraged them to raise awareness."

For her part, Scott says that though this campaign was never meant to go national, the mission of Mom2Mom is to provide support and awareness for breast-feeding. She says, "If this changes one woman or man's views on breast-feeding, or it helps one person, we've accomplished what we wanted."